Evanston Plans to Turn Former Little Beans Cafe Into South End Community Center
The city, which bought the Asbury Avenue play cafe in February, says the site will host accessible recreation programs, a preschool, a pickleball court and a temporary home for Ecology Center animals.
By Ken Adams ·
Evanston plans to convert the former Little Beans Cafe, a well-known cafe and play space at Asbury Avenue and Oakton Street, into a municipal facility to be called the South End Community Center. The city bought the property in February.
Audrey Thompson, the city's Parks and Recreation director, described the work completed since the purchase at a combined community meeting for the 2nd, 5th and 8th Wards on March 28.
According to Thompson, the center will serve as the base for the city's accessible recreation programs. It will also feature an indoor pickleball court and an expanded gymnastics program. In addition, it will temporarily house the staff and animals of the Evanston Ecology Center while that facility undergoes renovations expected to wrap up in October 2024.
Thompson said providing a permanent home for people who need accessible recreation was the main reason her department pushed for the building. "It always felt like they got what was left over and I always felt like that was not a good way to run a department," she said.
Accessible recreation camps are slated to begin at the center in June, along with drop-in hours. The cafe, tentatively named Evanston's Own Cafe, is expected to reopen in late June or early July and will feature Evanston-based businesses.
A preschool at the site is expected to open in August, Thompson said. It will also absorb some Ecology Center programming, including birthday parties, which are already being booked. Parents seeking a date night will be able to drop off their children at the center and receive discounts at several South Evanston businesses.
The Evanston City Council approved the purchase at its Jan. 22 meeting by a 5-2 vote, authorizing a maximum price of $2.6 million. Some council members had argued for waiting and folding the project into the following year's budget process. Others said the business's closure gave the city a chance to expand its services.
Councilmember Bobby Burns noted that Little Beans closed because of staffing struggles, but said the demand for the services it offered has not gone away. "They had business-related issues that I don't think we'll have as a city," Burns said. "One of the roles of government is when the market fails; that's when government should step in if it really is addressing a need."
Source: Chicago Tribune
